Location: Hiiragizawa Eriol's residence, the party
Time frame: Friday evening
Point of view: Sakura

I weaved my way in and out of the people in the room. Taking a wild guess, I'd say, there were well over a hundred people who had turned up for the event. A hundred plus people was a lot of people in my books. If it were held in my house, I don't think I'd be able to fit one hundred people. Even if I could, the party would probably have to be spread out between many rooms throughout the house. Eriol's though, he was able to host it all in the lounge.

Eriol's place, it was huge and old-fashioned as Tomoyo had said, but I suppose when she said that she had only meant on the outside as I realised when I got here. On the inside, the place was modern, very new and updated.

In one corner, he had a very techno entertainment system which looked like it cost a whole lot of money to buy. There was a widescreen television, a couple of disc players, and a mini system—that was where the hip dance music was blasting out from.

He also had a couple of couches that looked very comfortable and appeared to be of leather—if they were of genuine leather, I wasn't too sure. They were placed against a wall, surrounding a contemporary glass coffee table. I assumed Eriol had created that setting for those who wanted to chill out... or make out as I was seeing a couple of people doing right now.

The walls were plain in a shade of yellow, and the curtains were not too much different from the walls—slightly darker in shade. They were drawn back against the doors which he had opened up to his guests a couple of hours ago this evening, allowing access to Eriol's large backyard.

It was wise of him to do so too. Outside at the moment, I could see quite a number of people, yelling and screaming, dancing and jumping awkwardly, spraying each other with the liquid of their shaken up beer. People were seriously getting drunk, now that the party was heading towards its fourth hour. When the party ended, I wonder how this place would look. It was probably going to be a jungle of litter... bottles... and a few passed out people too. I could see a few around the room right now and one that was lying just at my feet.

Carefully, I avoided her as I continued through the lounge, attempting to make my way towards the adjoining dining area for another refill of my cup. Fortunately, I had chosen not to drink too much, only three small cups so far, or my evening probably wouldn't be too much different from that girl I just passed. Besides, I didn't want to be drunk like that, especially if I wanted to remember certain things.

"Hey, Sakura!" I turned around to see who had called for me, but I couldn't see where the voice had come from. There were many lava lamps around the place that provided the room enough illumination, yet, having searched left and right, ahead and behind me, I still couldn't see who it was. Maybe the alcohol had affected my senses more than I first thought.

"Over here!"

I looked behind me once again, recognising it to come from that direction. It was Chiharu, and by her side, Tomoyo.

"Hey guys," I bellowed over the noise and loud music.

Tomoyo approached my position then leaned into my ear. "How are you enjoying things, Sakura?"

"This party totally kicks, Tomoyo! You and Eriol did a really great job hosting it!"

"Thanks!"

"Yeah—it's going to carry on way past midnight by the looks of things," Chiharu observed, sweeping her eyes around the place. Her bubbly facial cast then changed to support a raised brow and pursed lips. "For some, the night has already ended." She was referring to the ones on the ground, snoozing.

Wholeheartedly, I nodded to the comment. Then a thought hit me, "What is Eriol going to do about them?"

"I suppose they'll have to crash here tonight." Tomoyo then chuckled. "Or maybe we could put them in the backyard for the night and let the sprinklers wake them, just for laughs."

I smiled awkwardly—Tomoyo and her mischievous deeds. Sometimes I think that, hiding inside that kind and sweet exterior, very, very, very deep down, she had a little troll inside of her.

"Well, there's an idea!" Chiharu endorsed.

Her too... There was a troll inside the both of them. Whenever they were together, it seemed that their deeds grow the more sinful. I really should make a mental note of that—and avoid! I don't want to end up—

I snapped my head to my right arm. An object had hit me and pain was starting to surface in the area above my elbow. I tried to find the offending object that had hit me. There it was, just below me, an unopened beer can. That must have been what had caused the considerable pain I was feeling in my arm. I looked around my immediate surroundings for the drunken idiot who had thrown it at me.

"Are you okay?" I heard my friends call in concern.

I redirected my attention back towards them, having not found the culprit. "Yeah, I'll be okay." Not that I could do much else but to let it go.

"Sorry about that, Sakura."

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't throw it, Tomoyo."

Then catching a flicker of light, I caught onto the sight of Eriol who had come in from his backyard. The flicker had come from his glasses. He was sneaking up to Tomoyo from behind and was telling me not to warn her of his approach, forefinger by his lips. I obliged, continuing to keep silent, just smiling as the conversation halted for the time being.

"So, have you had a chance to see Kansuke yet?" Tomoyo brought up a short moment later before a scream escaped her.

I laughed hard. It wasn't everyday you saw Tomoyo being caught off-guard. The joke was never on her, but always on others. But since Eriol turned up, occasionally you'd see her like she was now.

"Eriol—don't do that!" Her brows were very low, contrasting to the high pitch of her speech.

"What?" innocently he asked. "I'm not allowed to..." Eriol tightened his wrap around her waist. "...hug you? Or... kiss you?" He planted three quick successive kisses, each one getting closer to her lips as if he were launching rockets out of launching pads. Then for the final dispatch, he twisted his body around to plant one directly onto her lips, all the while, still managing to stand behind her. Eriol was a tall guy.

Tomoyo spun around in his arms to face him. "Have you had too much to drink?"

"No my Little Petal..." From that answer, I knew Eriol was slightly out of it. Then he defended himself with an answer even more typical of a drunk. "I'm the host, hosts don't get drunk."

"Eriol, that makes no sense." She turned her attention back to me, her frown returned to cheer as Eriol's head lay on Tomoyo's shoulder with a wide grin. "Anyway, are things looking up on the horizon between you and Kansuke, Sakura?"

I frowned at having no good news to share with my friends. After we arrived, I hadn't seen him since. When we got here, we just went our separate ways. There were a few times I found him, but he was always surrounded by people. He was just so popular; he was always busy with people.

"No... Not really."

"You were looking forward to spending some time with him here, weren't you, Sakura?"

Chiharu had asked me that. Out of the three of us, I was the only one who hadn't found my guy. Tomoyo had Eriol, Chiharu had Takashi. Yamazaki Takashi was one of my friends too.

I had known him and Chiharu since childhood. For as long as I remember, these two had been a couple; they were the longest standing couple I've met. And they still were. In fact, they were engaged. Not that I was ready to be at the point where Chiharu and Takashi were, but it would be nice to know that there was someone that important in my life for me to consider the possibility.

"Yeah..." Tomoyo and Chiharu slumped down to the expression I hated to see. "Don't give me pity, guys. I'm fine." They didn't believe me, continuing with that charity of compassion I didn't want. "Look, I'm going to get a drink, okay?"

"Alright! Catch up with you later, Sakura," their saddened tone forced to sound cheerful.

I waved to them, finally setting off again for that drink that I was meant to get a while back. I got into the dining area and headed for the countertop of alcoholic drinks. A lot of it was gone now compared to the last time I came back for a refill. There were only several bottles of ginger ale and liquor left, a couple of cans of beer, and the box of cider—pretty much empty too.

As I headed for the tap to the box of cider, I heard giggles from a corner. Out of curiosity, I pivoted around slightly to see that it was that girl in my class, the one Kansuke was chatting up this afternoon in Calculus. The guy that was with her... he was—

My eyes widened. It was Kansuke. He was right up against the body of the girl—several inches too close in my opinion. His right hand which held a beer bottle leaned against the wall, while the other lingered on top of her left shoulder, his fingers playing with the spaghetti strap of her top.

Why did it have to affect me like this was the first time I had seen him with other girls?—But he was so close to her; I've never seen him like that with a girl. My mind just spun with shock, frustration, anger, sadness, hurt, disappointment, jealousy... every unpleasant feeling was rising up so fast and there were so many, I didn't know what to do. I just stood there, staring at it all—at how he was completely focused on her, like there was nothing else more interesting than her.

Damn.

Every time, I would hope and expect, expect something to arise—and it would not be to a small extent, it would always be to the fullest. And each and every time, I've been disappointed.

Why?!

I didn't know why I always landed myself in these situations, placing so much optimism in things. The truth was I couldn't control them. My hopes they just rise like air balloons, steady but always reaching to heights I wasn't able to control. Why was I never able to turn that valve to lower levels and bring myself back down? Now my hopes had reached so high that it was painful to come down from it.

Why did I have to want him so much?

I shook my head in defeat. This evening was over for me. I've had enough of this party. I quickly headed out of there while I was still relatively calm; I didn't want to make a scene.

Then I heard the girl's giggle again, echoing to my ears as if taunting me of the person she had that I didn't. I turned back and grabbed a couple bottles of alcohol, one for each hand then I was going to leave. I was not going to get my chance with the guy—there was no use staying.

Location: Somewhere on the streets
Time frame: Friday, close to midnight
Point of View: Syaoran

I hadn't biked or driven to school today—I walked and now I was bearing the consequences of that decision. If I had known the day was going to turn out to be this long, I would have taken the car. It was around eleven-thirty, eleven-fourty-five in the middle of the night and I had yet to arrive home; I hadn't been in my apartment since seven this morning, since I left for school.

Walking home tonight was testing my resilience to the fatigue I felt. I had just come off a five-hour shift at the gas station before I headed over to the panel beating workshop that the boss there had invited me over earlier. I learnt a lot about the job there; it was good experience, but that extra hour was an extra hour, and it was taking a toll on my body and consciousness.

I was beat and aching all over. The muscles in my legs and blades of my shoulder felt like they were set ablaze by blowtorches; my head, thumping like I had a hammer beating at it, and was so heavy that forklifts would seize up in its attempt to lift the weight; and my eyes... my forehead, my entire face felt like it had been under heating lamps—dry and hot. As soon as I got home, I was going to head straight for the shower and then hit the sack after that.

A yawn escaped me; my eyes closed. The calm, the darkness... It felt good having them closed...

I snapped them back open when I felt my foot walk on lower ground. For a brief moment... long moment, I realised I had drifted off the footpath and onto the road. I breathed an exhausted sigh, inhaling some of the night's cool air into my system, hoping it'd keep me awake for the moment.

Moving myself back to the path, I started looking around my surroundings, needing something to distract me to sustain my consciousness longer.

Most people had retired for the day. The majority of households had their lights off and were pitch-dark now; I could only see one or two that was still lit. Everything was inanimate and extremely quiet. I was not the type to be concerned about the night, I was used to it, but truth be told, it did feel a little eerie having the street so deserted, being the only one here, walking at this hour.

Several more minutes passed. I was probably not more than fifteen minutes from my house, and again, the eyelids were starting to fall. I went to pinch the inner corners of my eyes before I tried shaking the weariness out of me. When I opened my eyes again, that was when I saw a figure in the distance.

It was a girl. She was hunched over something on the ground. As I got closer to her position, I noticed it was a gutter she was hunched over, on all fours, head tilted closely to the ground as if she was trying to listen to something.

Without frightening the girl, I let her know of my approach, proceeding with quiet and steady steps. She was whimpering—but it didn't appear she was in serious distress or grief. It was different—more like a homeless puppy's cry. I moved around to her right and stood there just to allow her some time to register my presence then I crouched beside her, the metre of room still between us.

"Kinomoto...?" I heard my thoughts speak aloud—surprised to discover the girl was Kinomoto Sakura. She briefly turned to look at me, hearing the soft call then she returned to her sobbing, looking back down at the gutter.

Nothing appeared to have happened to her. She looked fine. Her clothes appeared tidy, there was nothing out of place or damaged; her hair was slightly unkempt, but still held its style; and there were no tears; she wasn't crying. Yet, at the same time, she looked messed up.

I moved and leaned in closer, holding back a hand that hovered above her back, afraid it might startle her. "Are you alright?"

Sobs continued to follow before she responded to me, "It's ruined. It's no longer a pair."

Confused, I followed her gaze, and what I hadn't taken notice of before, there was a shoe, flat on its side. Assuming she was referring to the shoe, I motioned to pick it up. I took a quick glance around it. There was nothing wrong with this shoe—it hadn't been caught, broken, or scratched.

"You mean this?" I asked, gently putting it into her view.

Her eyes seemed to have lit up at the sight of it, her dejected mood abruptly transforming to extreme happiness that almost shocked me. Then the scream of delight came which seemed to have deafened my ears as it echoed loudly in the quiet night.

"You fixed it!"

She was intoxicated.

Kinomoto then stood up. I stayed crouched in my place, wondering what she was going to do next. As I was about to get up to steady her swaying body, I felt both of her hands beat down the left of my shoulder. I cringed and involuntarily hissed in response to the surge of pain that travelled up my neck to my head. She was attempting to get her shoe back on, using me as leverage.

"Whoa! Hold on a minute." Her feet were trying to connect with the shoe in her drunken condition, not allowing me to get up from my position to steady her. "Careful," I said to her, but she continued with frustration, ignoring my warnings.

Then her body started to lose height and control, toppling severely off to the side. Quickly I let go of the shoe to stand up and provide her support with my own body. I caught her by the shoulders as she mumbled about something that I couldn't make out. It was at the close contact, my nose picked up on the stench coming from her.

For a girl, Kinomoto smelt awful. There was no doubt about it; she had been drinking a lot. She also smelt like smoke. Kinomoto didn't strike me as the type to smoke, so I assumed she had been in an environment that did. Where had she gone before landing on the street like this?

"Stand still," I commanded firmly. It was probably the only tone she was going to respond to. "I'll help you get the shoe on." Instantly she stopped shifting. A child-looking expression washed over her previously vexed cast before she nodded.

Knowing a drunk's patience wasn't going to last very long, I made sure she was stable before I hastily crouched down and guided her foot into the shoe.

"Are you done?" she asked me in a drawn-out voice seconds later.

Yes, her patience was thinning. In under a minute, I suspected Kinomoto would start prancing around on the road if I took much longer. "Soon," I replied, but getting the thin strap through the buckle of her shoe was a much more difficult task than it'd normally be, especially when her foot kept rocking side to side.

Finally that strap was through that buckle and fastened tight. "Alright, you can move now."

"Thank you! My daddy was wrong—strangers in the dark are nice."

Upon that comment my thoughts trailed off to scenarios of the worst kind. There was no one around at the moment, but one couldn't predict the situation few minutes down the road. If she had come across an individual of the indecent kind, she could have easily been taken advantage of in her state. With Kinomoto dressed in that low-cut top and short skirt, it was lucky that I had found her instead of some perverted individual.

I should let someone know of her whereabouts. "Who can I—"

"No wait," she interrupted. She tilted her head, scrutinising me. "You're not a stranger. I know you. You're... you're Kansuke!"

Ashida.

"I can't believe you came for me! When I saw you up against that girl at the party, I thought you had forgotten all about me."

She had been to a party. That was where she had been before she ended up here. She was in this state because of that guy.

"Where do you live, Kinomoto?" I asked, but she continued to exist in her own world.

"My knight in shining armour!" she sang. Kinomoto then wrapped her arms around my neck. I was shocked then I was choking. Countering it, I lowered myself to her height. It was then I realised that her weight had created enough force to soothe the aching muscles across the shoulder blade. For the moment, she had relieved them.

"It's still early. Let's go on a date," she continued. "Come on Kansuke, I'll take you to my house." Then I was dragged along, apparently heading to her home.

"Wait!" I shouted. She stopped in her tracks, pivoting around to face me. "Your house is that way?" I made sure, gesturing into a small lane, left of the road I had come from.

"Yes." She pointed to the lane, confirming it. "It's that way." I nodded and headed in that direction.

We crossed the wide road and walked into the lane, accompanying Kinomoto back home. This day had just turned into an even longer day. Thank god tomorrow was Saturday and I had that day off from school and work. If I didn't, I'd probably have to skip it altogether just to get my strength back from tonight's adventures. That would have been a first.

"Oh wait." Kinomoto suddenly stopped. "Sorry, Kansuke." She was still calling me by that guy's name. This Kinomoto was too hung up on Ashida. "My house is not this way."

"What?!" was all I could get out, but then again, what did I expect from a person who was intoxicated.

"It's back that way!"

I sighed heavily. My night was getting longer as we speak. I hope I don't drop dead while I escorted her home.